families

Over the summer, Audit Scotland ran a survey to try to capture the views of parents and carers about their experiences of early learning and childcare in Scotland. This was a key part of our preparations for a new audit of these services, to give an independent assessment of how the system is working and what outcomes are being delivered for people who access this support.

It was the first time that Audit Scotland had directly reached out families who use these services, so we weren’t sure what kind of response to expect. We were really pleased with the result, as dozens of individuals and organisations helped to spread the word about the survey and over 300 people completed the questionnaire.

We learned a lot from the engagement, and collected some really useful material, including individual stories. Our early analysis of the responses shows a range of recurring views, including the positive impact that early learning and childcare can have on a child’s development and wellbeing.

However, concerns were raised on issues such as the cost of services, a lack of choice, and limited flexibility, particularly for working or studying parents.

It’s important to highlight that reform of early learning and childcare is continuing: in her September announcement on the 2016/17 Programme for Government, the First Minister set out a commitment to double the amount of free care available to all three and four-year-olds, and two-year-olds who will benefit most, by the end of the Scottish Parliament’s fifth session.

This means that our audit will be a timely and relevant contribution to the future development of early learning and childcare services. The views contributed by parents and carers have helped us to lay the groundwork for our audit and shape what questions we want to answer. There are a number of insights that we’ll investigate further and test out during the course of our fieldwork. We’ve set out more detail about our work – which we’ll carry out on behalf of the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission – in a new flyer.

One thing that’s certain is that we want to continue engaging with parents and carers, and we’re looking forward to building on the great response we’ve had so far.

We’ll continue to post updates about when we’ll publish our audit report as our work develops in the coming year – watch this space for news.

About the author

Rebecca Smallwood is an auditor and joined Audit Scotland in 2008. She has worked on a number of audits with a health and social care focus, including community health partnerships, emergency departments and reshaping care for older people.